“Pianist Cyrus Chestnut can do it all. Equally adept playing with trios, groups, or alone, he tackles a broad range of styles with both taste and intelligence.” — Amazon.com

“The pianist Cyrus Chestnut is one of jazz’s most convincing anachronisms. His brand of crisp articulation and blues-inflected harmony evokes another era, sometime before the ascent of Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner, to say nothing of Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett. But unlike the typical nostalgist, who pines for the past partly because of a queasy discomfort with the present, Mr. Chestnut appears comfortable with his placement in time. What makes his music fly is a complete security in his style, and that sense of
untroubled self-assurance.” — New York Times

This compilation includes Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday,” Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me,” Horace Silver’s “Peace,” and brilliant interpretations of many classic hymns, including Dr. William Smith’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Negro National Anthem and recognized as one of the most important musical offerings of the Civil Rights movement.

Treating this material with great delicacy and empathy, Chestnut’s tempos breathe and his phrasing combines an almost surgical precision with affecting tenderness. There isn’t a weak moment in the collection—precisely because there isn’t a moment in which he loses connection with the inherent power of the music.